


Missing Pieces

by madmeridian



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Undercover, a little bit, it’s not super sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27088864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madmeridian/pseuds/madmeridian
Summary: Near and Linda work together on a case and have a much needed talk about feelings.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11





	Missing Pieces

“I appreciate you doing this,” Near told Linda. 

“It was a good excuse to nag you about not reaching out sooner,” Linda teased. 

Near had taken a case and was investigating a series of murders. He had three main suspects, so Halle was off investigating one, while Rester dealt with another. Gevanni was off for a short period of time, and as such, left Near with the last. He didn’t want to go alone and Linda had told him she was in the area. 

Which is how they ended up in a large firm, there to meet the suspect. A rich businessman. They were in disguise, as two people from another company there to pitch a deal. Linda had her hair out of her pigtails for once and was wearing a dress, which Near thought looked odd. He’d only ever remembered seeing her in paint-splattered clothing and pigtails. 

She’d forced him to wear a nice sweater vest and slacks. He was extremely uncomfortable in them, but they were necessary. Linda had also forced him to comb his hair for once and wrangled it into a ponytail for him. She’d told him that it looked good longer, but it needed to be taken care of better. The whole time she was doing it, she was also nagging him about taking care of himself in general. 

They walked up to the receptionist. The lobby was empty other than her. 

“Hi, how can I help you?” 

“We’re here for a meeting,” Near said coolly. “I’m Mikhael Keel. And this is my associate, Elle Law.” 

“Oh, yes, you’ll have to wait a few minutes because Mr. Holts is still in another meeting, but I’ll let you know when it’s time!” 

“Thank you,” Near murmured, walking over to the chairs in the lobby. He selected the ones furthest from the receptionist, out of her hearing range. 

Near had asked Linda along because she had always been more sociable than him. She’d stop him if he said something abnormal or telling to their suspect. And she could probably make friends with him. She had always been able to talk to anyone, a trait Near couldn’t even fathom having. 

But, surprisingly, Linda was silent as they sat down. Normally she was never quiet, but she was clearly lost in thought. Then she surprised him by wrapping an arm around his shoulder and squeezing briefly. 

“Why’d you do that?” Near asked, completely confused. Linda had a sad, sympathetic look on her face that made Near vaguely nervous.

“You miss them a lot, don’t you?” 

Near looked away. He wasn’t stupid enough to think that she’d missed their aliases. 

“Of course.” 

“I mean, Mels and Matt were the only two even close to your level, weren’t they? And L was… well, I don’t know what he was, but you still lost him.” 

“I wish they weren’t dead, but they are and I can’t change that,” Near said firmly. 

One of his biggest regrets was not being able to save Mello and Matt. Mello hated him, but they understood each other and Near misses _that_. And Matt, of course, had always been kind to him. He hadn’t been quite a friend, but was closer than anyone but Linda had gotten. 

“It’s okay to be sad, Near,” Linda said. “I miss Mello and Matt too. And you know you can always reach out to me and talk about it.” 

“I know.” Near felt a moment of guilt for not talking to her more. She was really all that was left of his life at Wammy’s before becoming L. She’d been Mello and Matt’s friend, and she had really been his only friend too. 

“Mr. Keel, Ms. Law, we’re ready for you!” 

“Come on,” Linda said, smiling sadly at him. “We’ve got work to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr, I invited people to send me headcanons to write ficlets with. An anon sent me this: “It's a kind of bittersweet headcanon but I like to imagine that if (post-Kira) Near ever has to go out in public for a case, he uses the alias "Michael King", "Mikhael Keel", "Mick Kale" and other variants (like how L had "rue ryuzaki"). Maybe he'll even use a "Miles Jarvis" or an "Elliot Law".  
> "Hikari", perhaphs, if he feels particularly like spiting a certain dead so-called 'god'.“
> 
> I liked it so much that I wrote the ficlet and edited it today. Big thank you to this anon, this headcanon is wonderful!!! I’m happy you shared it. I wanted to write a little bit of Linda and Near’s friendship, so I incorporated it a bit here. I thought Near might be willing to use the aliases for Linda too, since she understands the meanings behind it.
> 
> Thank you for reading!! Any kudos or comments are appreciated and I will do my best to respond to any comments.


End file.
